TERMS OF BUSINESS LETTER ISSUED BY
PLATINUM FINANCIAL CONSULTING

Firms who advise on life assurance, pensions, or unit trust products are EITHER independent advisers OR representatives of one company. YOUR ADVISER IS INDEPENDENT and will act on your behalf in advising you on life assurance, pensions or unit trust products. Because your adviser is independent he or she can advise you on the products of different companies.

Customer Classification

The firm proposes to classify you as a Private Customer.

Investment Objectives and Restrictions

Following the issue of this letter, any subsequent advice or recommendation offered to you will be based on your stated investment objectives, acceptable level of risk and any restrictions you wish to place on the type of investments or policies you are willing to consider. Details of your stated investment objectives will be included in the Suitability Letter we will issue to you to confirm our recommendation. Unless confirmed in writing, to the contrary, we will assume that you do not wish to place any restrictions on the advice we give you.

Investments Services

The firm is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to advise on and arrange Life Assurance, Pensions, Collective Investments, Personal Equity Plans, Individual Saving Accounts and Financial Planning. We are bound by the rules of the FSA.

With regard to investments we have arranged for you, these will not be kept under review unless we have been specifically asked to do so by you. However, we may contact you in the future by means of an unsolicited promotion should we wish to discuss the relative merits of an investment or service which we feel may be of interest to you.

Scope of Services

We are authorised to offer advice in the following areas:

Arranging (bringing about) deals in investments

Making arrangement with a view to transactions in investments

Advising on investments (except on Pension transfers and opt-outs)

Agreeing to carry on a Regulated Activity

Written Instructions

We will normally require you to give written instructions in order for us to carry out transactions on your behalf. However, in cases of emergency, we will act upon spoken instruction subject to confirmation in writing.

Remuneration

We derive income from commission paid to us in respect of transactions in Life Assurance, PEP/ISA, Unit Trusts and other Regulated Collective Investment Schemes and in Investment Trust Companies’ shares held in a PEP/ISA or regular savings scheme. We shall tell you the amount and the frequency of commission payable to us on any such investment.

If we receive commission or other form of benefit from the issuer of a security or from another intermediary, we will inform you but we will not tell you its amount unless you ask us to do so. We reserve the right to share any commission or fees received by us with other introducing agents.

Alternatively, if you or we propose to operate on a fee basis, we will agree its basis, frequency and method with you in writing before we carry out any chargeable work. Should we receive commission from any third party in relation to transactions arranged for you, we will offset the amount received against any fees due.

Accounting to Customers

Unless in exceptional circumstances, we will confirm to you in writing the basis or our reason for recommending the transaction executed on your behalf.

We will also make arrangements for all your investments to be registered in your name unless you first instruct us otherwise in writing. We will forward to you all documents showing ownership of your investments as soon as practicable after we receive them; where a number of documents relating to a series of transactions are involved, we will normally hold each document until the series is complete and then forward them to you.

Right to withdraw

You will be advised at the point of sale where a right to withdraw applies and the relevant circumstances.

Unsolicited Real Time Financial Promotions

As an established customer the firm may, on occasion, need to contact you either by telephone or letter as part of our business relationship within any 12-month period.

Conflicts of Interest

We offer independent advice but occasions can arise where we, or one of our customers, will have some form of interest in business that we are transacting for you. If this happens, or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other customers conflict with your interests, we will inform you in writing and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

We maintain professional indemnity insurance to the value required by the Financial Services Authority.

Money Laundering

Where we are required to verify your identity in accordance with the Criminal Justice Act 1993 and Money Laundering Regulations, no investment will be made until such verification has been obtained.

Client Money

OUR SCOPE OF PERMISSION DOES NOT PERMIT US TO HANDLE CLIENTS’ MONEY FOR INVESTMENT BUSINESS.

Client Assets

We do not hold clients’ assets for safe-keeping. We may hold policy documents, certificates or contract notes or similar documents on a temporary basis only.

Customer’s Understanding of Risk

Should you wish to transact any business in relation to warrants or derivatives, non-readily realisable investments, penny-shares, securities, which may be subject to stabilisation or stock lending activity, the relevant risk warning will be issued prior to you completing the transaction [Risk warnings issued are in accordance with FSA COB 5.4.3 –10 and COB 5 Annex 1]. The firm may also offer advice on investments relating to, or executing transactions in, units in Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes.

Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes

You are advised that we may on occasion give advice on investments relating to, or executing transactions in units in Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes

Making a Complaint

If you should have any complaint about the advice you receive or a product that you have bought please write to the Compliance Officer at Platinum Financial Consulting, The Old School House, East End Road, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, CM0 7PY. If you feel that your complaint has not been sufficiently handled you may subsequently complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR, Tel: 0207 676 1000.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

If you make a valid claim against the firm in respect of the investments we arrange for you and we are unable to meet our liabilities in full, you may be entitled to redress from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Details of the cover provided by the scheme are given in a leaflet which we will send you at your request. Further information is available from the Financial Services Authority and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Disclosure of Clients' Personal Data

Where investment business services are provided to the firm by third parties then circumstances may arise which warrant the disclosure of more than just your basic contact details. On these occasions such as processing business, and obtaining compliance and regulatory advice, you agree that personal information held by the firm may be disclosed on a confidential basis, and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, to such third parties. You agree that this information may be transferred electronically, e.g. e-mail. You also agree that any such third party or ourselves may contact you in future by any means of communication that we consider appropriate at the time.

Record Keeping

We keep records of all our business transactions indefinitely in the case of pension transfer, pension opt-out and FSAVC; six years in the case of life policies, pension contracts and Stakeholder pension schemes and three years in all other cases.

Termination of this Agreement

You or we may terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without penalty. Notice of this termination must be given in writing. The termination will be without prejudice to the completion of transactions already initiated, if this is the case.

Contracting out of Best Execution

The FSA requires that, when a firm executes a customer order in a designated investment, it must provide best execution. This requirement may be waived if the following conditions apply:

• The customer order is for the purchase of a life policy or the purchase or sale of units in a Regulated Collective Investment Scheme from or to the operator of that scheme; or
• The firm has agreed in writing with an intermediate customer that it need not owe a duty of best execution to them unless the customer is the trustee of an Occupational Pension Scheme or an OPS Collective Investment Scheme or the trustee of any other trust for whom, and to the extent that, the firm acts as a permitted third party; or
• The firm relies on another person to whom it passes a customer order for execution to provide best execution.

Issued by : Platinum Financial Consulting